Saturday, November 11, 2006

Sunday Prayer for Remembrance/Veteran's Day

A big thank you this week to Gord who agreed to share his Remembrance Day prayer with us. Thanks Gord!

God of peace and love, on this 11th day of the 11th month we once again gather to remember. We remember that in Jesus of Nazareth you have called us to be people of peace saying, “Blessed are the peacemakers” and reminding us that we are to love our neighbour and our enemy as we love ourselves.But we also acknowledge that there are times when we as a global community fail to live out those words, times when young men and women hear the call to don the uniforms of their country and serve under their flag.Today we give thanks for all who have chosen to serve their country. We give thanks for their bravery, their commitment, and their love.But we know that when armies meet on the field there are always some who don’t come home.And so we pause in the memory of those who went and did not return to mothers and wives and children left behind.

We remember battles at Ypres, and Passchendale, and Vimy Ridge in the war we were told would end all wars, battles where the blood of enemies mingled in the mud and water of France and Belgium.And we remember those who fell in the war that came a scarce generation later. And again young men died in places like Hong Kong, and Ortona, and Dieppe, and Juno Beach, and in the Netherlands.We remember all who fell and were buried far from home, or who sank to a watery grave in the cold Atlantic.

Then as the years past the roles changed and we sent our best to help keep the peace in places like Cyprus, and the Golan Heights, and Cambodia. And still some died and were buried.And now, in these last few months we find that our young have returned to the battlefield, only to have 42 of them return in a coffin carried solemnly to a waiting aircraft.

God, whose hope for the world is peace, on this day we not only remember the fallen of Canada who lie buried under a military tombstone. We remember also the fallen of Germany, and Japan, and France, and Australia. Or Italians, and native Afghanis, and English. This day we honour all who die as a result of humanity’s common failing to live in the peace you have hoped for all these millennia.

God, we pray too for those who returned from battle forever changed by what they had seen. For those who bore, and still bear, wounds of body and soul. In particular we remember those from within this Legion community who have died since the last time we gathered in this way: (read names from bulletin).

And now, God of love, as we have remembered and honoured, we prepare to go back into our everyday lives. May the remembering we have done here today reawaken and strengthen our commitment to work for peace, true peace. Help us to remember that peace will never truly come from a gun barrel but from the depths of our hearts. Help us remember our calling to be peacemakers at home and abroad, in the big things and in the small. And may we never forget the cost that has already been paid.

God of peace that surpasses all understanding, we pray our remembrances and our hopes in the name of Christ, the Prince of Peace, who taught his friends to pray by saying together:Our Father, who art in heaven…

The vets in my congregation and in the gay, lesbian, biesxual and transgendered community in general often have mixed feelings about their military service, since they usually had to leave the service or live a lie--I want to make them proud, not ashamed, today.

Yeah Tripp, I iamgine listing Canadian battels would be less than relevant in a US setting. And 42 deaths in Afghanistan pales in relation--even on a pro-rated for population basis-- to the losses American forces have seen in the last 4 years.

Thanks so much for the beautiful prayer. My dad, a WWII veteran who enlisted on November 11, 1943, died last week. We give thanks to God for him and for God's mercy in healing him from the illness that took his strength. And I give thanks to God for this prayer - thanks for remembering guys (and gals) like my beloved parent.